The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah
Two French sisters take different paths of survival and resistance under Nazi occupation.
World War II era · Military & war · Family saga
Historical fiction · story type
Military & war historical fiction books
Military & war historical fiction: Battles, home fronts, and wartime lives. Military and war historical fiction covers battles, command, and civilian home fronts. Combine with WWII, Civil War, or other era landings for a tighter shelf.
Curated on HisFic (41)
Hand-picked historical fiction tagged as military & war.
The Women
Kristin Hannah
A young American nurse serves in Vietnam and struggles to be seen when she comes home.
Cold War · Late 20th century · Military & war · Family saga
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
A girl steals books in Nazi Germany; Death narrates a story of words and survival.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller
Patroclus narrates his bond with Achilles against the backdrop of the Trojan War.
Ancient world · Literary · Romance
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque
German soldiers experience the brutal reality of World War I trenches.
World War I era · Military & war · Literary
The Rose Code
Kate Quinn
In 1940 three women—society girl Osla, East End clerk Mab, and shy Beth—are recruited to Bletchley Park to break German codes, then torn apart by secrecy and betrayal. In 1947 an encrypted letter pulls them back together to hunt a traitor still hiding in the rose code—World War II historical fiction of friendship, cryptanalysis, and a postwar reckoning.
World War II era · Cold War · Time-slip · Mystery
City of Thieves
David Benioff
In the starving winter of the Leningrad siege, seventeen-year-old Lev Beniov is caught looting a dead German and spared only if he and Kolya, a deserting private with a story for every checkpoint, can bring a colonel a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake. David Benioff’s 2008 novel is World War II military historical fiction of a frozen city, cannibals on the road, and two young men sent behind the lines for a feast nobody can afford.
World War II era · Military & war · Adventure & epic
Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell
Scarlett O’Hara fights to survive the Civil War and Reconstruction in the American South.
Civil War · Victorian / Gilded Age · Romance · Family saga
North and South
John Jakes
Two families—one Northern, one Southern—are torn by the approach of the Civil War.
Civil War · Victorian / Gilded Age · Family saga · Military & war
The Alice Network
Kate Quinn
In 1947 a pregnant American college student hunts for a missing Frenchwoman and collides with Eve Gardiner, a damaged veteran of a real World War I spy ring. Dual timelines braid the Alice Network’s 1915 missions in occupied France with a postwar reckoning.
World War I era · Cold War · Time-slip · Military & war
The Bronze Horseman
Paullina Simons
In June 1941, Leningrad still has white nights when Tatiana Metanova meets Red Army officer Alexander Belov—then Hitler’s armies close the siege and hunger, secrets, and an impossible love take the city. Paullina Simons’s opening Bronze Horseman novel is World War II historical romance of the siege of Leningrad: war, family, and a passion that has to survive the winter.
World War II era · Romance · Military & war
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
A writer corresponds with islanders who survived German occupation—and finds a home among them.
World War II era · Military & war · Romance
The Last Kingdom
Bernard Cornwell
Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a Saxon earl’s son raised by Danes, is pulled between a pagan war-band and Alfred’s Wessex as ninth-century England is carved up. Cornwell’s opening Saxon novel is medieval military historical fiction: shield walls, divided loyalty, and the making of England.
Medieval · Military & war · Adventure & epic
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Heather Morris
Based on a true story: a Slovakian Jew forced to tattoo prisoners at Auschwitz falls in love against impossible odds.
World War II era · Biographical · Romance
The Winds of War
Herman Wouk
In 1939 Navy commander Victor “Pug” Henry is posted to Berlin as the American naval attaché, and the war pulls his wife Rhoda, their children, and a Jewish daughter-in-law through Germany, Britain, and Russia until Pearl Harbor, where the battleship he was about to command is hit before he can go aboard. Herman Wouk’s 1971 novel is World War II saga historical fiction of one navy family from the invasion of Poland to the day the United States enters the war.
World War II era · Family saga · Military & war
The Winter King
Bernard Cornwell
After High King Uther dies, infant Mordred is left exposed and Arthur—the exiled bastard—returns from Armorica to hold a crumbling Britain against Saxons, Irish raiders, and rival kings, while Derfel Cadarn, a Saxon-born warrior sworn to him, watches honor and Guinevere pull the warlord toward ruin. Bernard Cornwell’s 1995 novel is Dark Age military historical fiction: mud, shield walls, and an Arthur who is a soldier, not a romance-cycle king.
Medieval · Military & war · Adventure & epic
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy
Five Russian families move through court, love, and the Napoleonic invasion as 1805 becomes Borodino and Moscow burns. Tolstoy’s epic is Napoleonic historical fiction on a national scale—ballrooms and battlefields, Pierre and Natasha, and the question of who makes history.
Regency / Napoleonic · Family saga · Literary
Das Boot
Lothar-Günther Buchheim
In the autumn of 1941 a German U-boat commander—the Old Man—and his crew leave the French coast for another Battle of the Atlantic patrol, hunting supply ships through storms while destroyers and depth charges hunt them. Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s 1973 novel (English translation) is World War II military historical fiction of that boat: a war correspondent aboard, weeks underwater, and a crew the Atlantic is more likely to keep than to send home.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
Les Misérables
Victor Hugo
In 1815, convict Jean Valjean is released from the galleys and tries to live honestly under a stolen name, while Inspector Javert hunts him through Restoration and July-Monarchy France. Hugo’s novel follows Fantine, Cosette, Marius, and the 1832 Paris barricades—crime, mercy, and a social epic that still defines French historical fiction after Waterloo.
Regency / Napoleonic · Family saga · Literary
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
C. S. Forester
In 1793, seventeen-year-old Horatio Hornblower is dumped aboard HMS Justinian, seasick and untried, then wins his sea legs through prize crews, a duel, fire ships, and a stretch as a prisoner in Spain on the way to lieutenant. C. S. Forester’s novel is Napoleonic naval historical adventure: the first chronological Hornblower, and the making of a Royal Navy legend.
Regency / Napoleonic · Military & war · Adventure & epic
A Dangerous Friend
Ward Just
American idealism collides with Vietnam’s reality (SAH Prize co-winner 2001).
Cold War · Literary · Military & war
Days Without End
Sebastian Barry
An Irish immigrant and his partner fight in the Indian Wars and Civil War (Walter Scott Prize 2017).
Civil War · Victorian / Gilded Age · Military & war · Literary
In the Lake of the Woods
Tim O'Brien
A politician’s marriage unravels under the shadow of Vietnam (SAH Prize 1995).
Cold War · Late 20th century · Literary · Mystery
Matterhorn
Karl Marlantes
Marines fight for a hill in Vietnam—brutal, unforgettable (SAH Prize 2011).
Cold War · Military & war · Literary
Paradise Alley
Kevin Baker
The New York Draft Riots through intertwined immigrant lives (SAH Prize 2003).
Civil War · Literary · Military & war
The Last Town on Earth
Thomas Mullen
A mill town quarantines itself against the 1918 flu (SAH Prize 2007).
World War I era · Literary · Military & war
These Days
Lucy Caldwell
Two sisters endure the Belfast Blitz over four devastating days (Walter Scott Prize 2023).
World War II era · Literary · Military & war
Tightrope
Simon Mawer
A female SOE agent’s wartime courage and Cold War aftershocks (Walter Scott Prize 2016).
World War II era · Cold War · Literary · Military & war
Birdsong
Sebastian Faulks
Stephen Wraysford’s prewar love affair in Amiens is swallowed by the Somme, the tunnels under the Western Front, and the unmaking of a generation. A later strand follows his granddaughter as she tries to recover what the Great War buried.
World War I era · Late 20th century · Military & war · Literary
From Here to Eternity
James Jones
In February 1941 Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt reports to G Company at Schofield Barracks and refuses to box for the company, while First Sergeant Milt Warden risks his career with the commanding officer’s wife, and both are still in Hawaii when the attack hits Pearl Harbor. James Jones’s 1951 novel is World War II military historical fiction of the Regular Army in the last months before the United States enters the war.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
Master and Commander
Patrick O'Brian
In 1800, luck and patronage put Jack Aubrey in command of the brig Sophie, with ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin as friend, naturalist, and intelligence officer. The first Aubrey–Maturin novel is Napoleonic naval historical fiction: prize-taking, seamanship, and a friendship that carries a twenty-book series.
Regency / Napoleonic · Adventure & epic · Military & war
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
John Boyne
Nine-year-old Bruno is moved from Berlin to a lonely house beside a fence his sister calls Out-With; from his window he sees people in striped pajamas, and he makes a secret friend named Shmuel on the other side. John Boyne’s 2006 novel is WWII Holocaust historical fiction told as a child’s fable: a friendship through the wire at Auschwitz, and a title readers still search by name.
World War II era · Literary · Military & war
The Bridge over the River Kwai
Pierre Boulle
In 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson marches his British prisoners into Camp 16 beside the River Kwai and refuses Colonel Saito’s order that the officers labor, so Saito shuts Nicholson and his officers in iron boxes. Pierre Boulle’s 1952 novel, in Xan Fielding’s English translation, is World War II military historical fiction of the bridge Nicholson then builds, as a point of honor, on the line between Bangkok and Rangoon—and of the Force 316 team sent from Calcutta to destroy it.
World War II era · Military & war
The Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas
In 1625, Gascon cadet d’Artagnan rides to Paris to join Louis XIII’s musketeers and falls in with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—then into Cardinal Richelieu’s war of spies, diamonds, and honor. Dumas’s novel is early-modern historical adventure: duels, the queen’s honour, and the friendship behind “all for one, one for all.”
Early modern · Adventure & epic · Military & war
A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway
On the Italian front in World War I, American ambulance driver Frederic Henry falls in love with British nurse Catherine Barkley as the Caporetto retreat unravels the army around them. Hemingway’s 1929 novel is Great War historical fiction stripped to weather, wounds, and a private peace that cannot hold.
World War I era · Military & war · Literary
Catch-22
Joseph Heller
On the Mediterranean island of Pianosa in 1944, bombardier John Yossarian is told he can be grounded if he is crazy, and that asking to be grounded proves he is sane, while Colonel Cathcart raises the number of missions again. Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel is World War II military historical fiction of an American bomber squadron, the rule they call Catch-22, and a man the paperwork will not let leave the war.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
Empire of the Sun
J. G. Ballard
In December 1941, eleven-year-old Jim Graham is separated from his parents when the Japanese army takes the International Settlement in Shanghai, and he survives the streets until he is interned at the Lunghua camp. J. G. Ballard’s 1984 novel is World War II military historical fiction of the years he spends there—hunger, American air raids on the field beside the camp, and the march out of Lunghua as the war collapses.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
The Four Feathers
A. E. W. Mason
In 1882, before his regiment sails with Lord Wolseley’s expedition, Harry Feversham resigns his commission and is given three white feathers by his brother officers; at a dance in Ramelton, Ethne Eustace breaks a fourth from her fan. A. E. W. Mason’s 1902 novel is Victorian adventure historical fiction of the years he then spends disguised in Egypt and the Sudan, trying to win the feathers back in the Mahdist war.
Victorian / Gilded Age · Adventure & epic · Military & war
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Richard Flanagan
In 1943, Tasmanian surgeon Dorrigo Evans tries to keep Australian POWs alive on the Thai-Burma Death Railway—cholera, beatings, and a Japanese command that measures men in sleepers laid—while the memory of an affair with his uncle’s wife follows him from the jungle into a decorated postwar life he cannot inhabit. Richard Flanagan’s 2013 novel is WWII military historical fiction of the Pacific war, and the Booker Prize winner readers still search by its long title.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
Atonement
Ian McEwan
In the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis misreads a moment between her sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the housekeeper’s son, and a false accusation follows them into World War II—Dunkirk, a London hospital, and a guilt Briony will spend a lifetime trying to rewrite. Ian McEwan’s novel is literary historical fiction of class, war, and the stories we tell to atone.
World War II era · Interwar · Literary · Military & war
The Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper
In 1757, during the French and Indian War, scout Hawkeye and the Mohican warriors Chingachgook and Uncas guide Cora and Alice Munro through the forests around Fort William Henry as the siege, a massacre, and a pursuit up the lakes close in. James Fenimore Cooper’s novel is early-American historical adventure: wilderness warfare, a famous frontier friendship, and the Leatherstocking tale readers still know by title.
Early modern · Adventure & epic · Military & war